Rennes

Good weekend. We spent saturday in Rennes. Its a super neat place. There was a big market (2nd largest in France) in the main square, so we wandered our way to that first. It was just a normal street market, complete with fruits and veggies, meat, flowers, bread, crepes, cheese, fish... After walking through the market for a bit, we made our way to a nice park close by. Its pretty big, and apparently Rennes is well known for it. And we had a picnic! Unfortunately, the weather lied to us. It was supposed to be partly cloudy/mostly sunny and 55 degrees. The wind chill was listed as 0. LIES! It was super windy and therefore really quite cold. We still had a nice picnic though, and took lots of pictures.

Anyways, after our picnic we went wandering through the park. It was pretty nice, it had a random bird cage thing in the middle, then some nice gardens, follwed by other gardens, and a so called botannical garden with a fish pond in the middle. The whole park was very nice and green though, definitely well taken care of. So then, we realized that we had pretty much already been through the whole list of things to do in Rennes, and we still had the rest of the afternoon, as our train wasn't until 8.

So we went over to the play area and started playing. AND THERE WAS A TEETER-TOTTER! Cassie and I started teeter-tottering, naturally. Then, Sam and Kaitlin joined us on the teeter-totter. So everything is fine and dandy, and we haven't been there that long when 2 officially dressed park policemen come in. One stood off to the side, and the other came into the middle, stood very tall with his hands behind his back and said in a Very Serious Voice (in French): Pick up your bags and leave immediately. And we were all kindof in shock at his serious, but also really rude tone, and so we stood there for just one second dumbfounded, and he said, a little bit louder, and more rude/seriously: Lets go. We realized after the fact we should have just played dumb on the language bit, but who knows. He was in no mood to play games with us. And as we were grabbing our things and filing out silently, he informed us that it was for under-12 year olds. Ha! We still managed to get in 5 minutes of fun. And like as we walked out, he radioed back to someone that he got us out of there. It was all very strange. And I can understand being kicked out if we had been doing something illegal, like vandalizing or abusing the park, but we were legitimately just playing. Oh well!

After that fun experience, we went to the tourist office and got a Rennes tourist map, that had a walking tour of the center of town and all the things to see. I played tour guide (haha which I really enjoy doing for some reason. I think its fun to lead the way and read the little blurbs about everything in a funny tour guide -y voice). We did that for the afternoon, and took lots more pictures. Then it was kebab for dinner and homeward bound!

We felt bad though, because when we were waiting for our train at the station in Rennes, when we saw this kid Stephan that we know. He is this german boy who is always really nice, but he is definitely a little strange. Not sure he has a ton of friends either. So we wave to him and he came over to say hi. Well apparently, he had posted on facebook the day before "Does anyone want to go to Rennes with me tomorrow?" and no one had responded. I don't have him as a friend on facebook,but 2 or 3 of the other girls do. We felt bad though, because we had been planning this trip for a bit, and he spent the day in Rennes alone. :(

Overall it was a good time though. And pictures will be posted on facebook soon!

Tout va bien.

Guillaume gave me a big hug and now its all ok. At least I'm not so stressed anymore. :D

And we're taking a day trip with all the girls (6 of us) to Rennes tomorrow. Lets hope it all goes well :)

GGGGAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

When it comes to papers I hate France. Hate it. Hate it. HATE IT.

I apparently have to go back for my visa paperwork again. Because he has decided he wants these 2 other papers. THAT WEREN'T ON THE LIST OF PAPERS I NEEDED! because I had all of those, as he admitted. But no, as per usual with France, things MUST BE DIFFICULT and INCONVENIENT whenever possible.

So I have 2 more things to get to them. Two more extremely useless things. And then my request can be processed.

AND now I have this stupid dinky half sheet of paper that I have to carry around with me at all times for the next 3 months to prove I'm not here illegally. Then, in like 3 months, they'll send me this card thing that says I'm not illegal. And BIG SURPRISE! there is a passport photo stuck to this sheet of paper. They have a real obsession with passport photos in France. They must be attached to EVERYTHING. seriously though, Everything.

Also, I can't travel in the next 2 months outside of France without going back AGAIN and getting another visa so they will allow me back into France.

And, the whole reason I had to come back this second time was because he wanted my OFII paperwork and medical exams to be completed. Well I got a pretty new sticker in my passport to show I had finished all that. Today, he typed in my dossier number, and it didn't work. My file just couldn't be found. No idea why.

Miguel had the exact same situation as me. And he had no trouble. WHY AM I HAVING SO MUCH TROUBLE!?!?

And to top off this lovely couple of days, a stupid pathetic girl is trying her very best to get on my boyfriend. If it gets worse I will have no choice but to bitch her out in english. GRRRR!

(Sorry for the somewhat unhappy ranting blog entry today. I'm pretty frustrated.)

Just a normal weekend..

Well, not a lot new to report. Just been a normal kinda weekend around here.


There was an erasmus soiree on thursday night, so it was just basically a gathering of all the international students. The trouble was that there were these 3 Moroccan guys creeping on me, Mel, and Cassie pretty hard. So the night was ish.

On friday we hit up the Soldes. They're the after Christmas sales that every shop in France does from mid-January until mid-February. And each week of the Soldes, they mark down a little bit more. The good stuff is already pretty much gone, but by the middle of February, they're practically giving stuff away. Not gonna lie, we're pretty excited about that. I didn't buy much though. I'm running low on funds, so I'm trying not to spend too much until I get my stipend.

Didn't do too much the rest of the weekend. Guillaume's house had an Open House this weekend though, so I went. I'm not normally allowed to see it, except the main dining room. Anyways, its in Old Town, so its pretty nifty. The house is old inside, but very nicely restored, as they are all carpenters, painters, roofers... It has a lot of character though, and its definitely a neat house. I've always wanted to see inside one of the house in old town. To him its no big deal, but I really like it.


Then today, Cassie and I visited the Sunday market and did some exploring around town. Actually stumbled on to a couple of spots I'd never seen before. Took some more pictures as usual. And now its on to a new week. 3 days of busy followed by 4 days of lazy :)

GOOD DAY!

I love those. Those are the best kind. SO MANY REASONS TOO!

1. The weather was nice today! I love days when the weather is nice and so life is just better.

2. Went to my new translation class today. Awesome. Taught by this CRAZY OLD BRITISH MAN. He is hysterical. So I'm a big fan. And I'm going to stick with that class for sure. He reminded me a lot of the old guy in the movie UP. Its like his lips kinda fold over his teeth and he has like that face and jaw and everything. And he just makes these great facial expressions but he is really funny and keeps the class' attention really well. I enjoyed it. So yay!

3. Meeting with the English coordinator. All is good with my schedule finally.

4. Went to one of my other classes for the first time. I was worried that it was going to be an analysis class like the other one turned out to be, but it was exactly what I wanted. It was just french grammar broken down into really simple terms. So now my schedule is really really finalized.

5. Talked to the women in international relations, and in the next 2 to 3 weeks I should be getting my stipend in full. In which case I will soon be RICH!

6. Miguel picked up the keys to the classroom I'll be teaching in tomorrow. One less thing to worry about. Yay for getting paid to speak in English!

7. I think I'm finished with my awkward french medical exams. I have another appointment next week, but I'm pretty sure that its just to put together the paperwork.

That is all I can think of for now. But YAY for a good day! I'm happy :)

P.S. - Guillaume is coming over in a few minutes. Another happy thing about my day :D

French Medical Exams

Welp, had my first one this morning. It was just at the Clinic down the road. I had to go to the radiology center. It was a little strange though. So they called me into this room where the woman said Ok take off everything on top. And then she just watched me take off everything on top. Just stood there, while I took off my layers, down to my tank top, and finally, my bra. It was just a little odd. But then she did the X-Ray and I was finished. But then, I had to wait for my results which took forever. And it was the normal kind of waiting room where usually you don't sit next to anyone else unless you have to. Well this woman and her son came in. He went and sat at this group of chairs over there, then she looked at him and sat down between me and this asian kid that was there for the same reason I was. And it was awkward and uncomfortable to have a stranger sit that close when it was entirely unnecessary. And there were other open seats across the way. Well anyways, she reeked of smoke and it just wasn't that pleasant to have our shoulders touching. So then, after that, the time until they called my name again went even slower.

I've got my real medical exam type appointment this afternoon. Not so sure how that will go in French. Its not like they teach you those words. Here is how you go to the doctor.. No. So not so sure how its gonna go. We'll see. Hopefully not too bad.

First Week

Ugh. What a mess with my schedule and my visa and my teaching thing.

Well my schedule was all set, but then 2 of my classes were pretty much out of my level of ability to pass in a foreign language, so I've been trying to change my schedule around. Then, that sort of stemmed me to change a lot of my classes, so now I'm a little worried that I will be going into 3 or 4 classes late. Then, to make matters worse, I won't even be able to go to 2 of my classes this week, and one next week because of my medical appointments for my visa.

AND my visa. Stupid stupid visa. Well my visa is meant to expire the 1st of February, as I was originally only going to stay for a semester abroad. Well I had an appointment with the Prefecture in France to extend my visa for friday the 21st of January, yesterday. I went. Waited and did the whole thing, then when I got to the desk, with my folder and all my super organized paperwork, he told me I'd have to come back to do it. Apparently they prefer to wait til the visa has expired to do it. But no one told me that before. NO ONE! jerks. So now I have another appointment in 2 weeks. This time, though, Guillaume can't come. So if there is another strange circumstance, I'll have no one to help me understand it.

Then, along with the visa paperwork is the OFII paperwork. Who knows what that stands for. But anyways, for the OFII stuff, you have to get a medical visit if you are staying in France more than 3 months. Well I came back to a letter in my mailbox that I have my medical appointments next week and the week after. There are 3 in all. There is a notice on the bottom of the letter that says the times and dates of the appointments cannot be changed. Well they all have to land right during classes. So there is actually at least one class that I will miss the first 2 weeks of. Grrrr.

Also, I was hired at the end of last semester to teach some english classes. Well actually, last semester it was just to be a conversation partner, but this semester it is to teach them. So, we had our meeting for that last week, and it was decided that I would teach the wednesday morning classes and the other American doing this would teach the afternoon classes. Easy enough. But then, the reason I had so much trouble changing my schedule was that classes kept landing on wednesday morning. Oh it was a mess. Well thats all worked out, but everything was still resting on me getting my visa. Which was supposed to happen yesterday, but didn't. And I'm even more confused, because the other American had all the same stuff with his visa, but had no trouble getting it extended before it had expired. Harumph. :(